Toolik - summer 2019 field campaign
by Hélène Angot
Saturday, May 18th
- Talked to the EMT after what happened yesterday and we now have a fire extinguisher in the flux hut (on the floor, right when you enter, below the heater).
Made room in the hut (took the MET rack apart). The MET controls box and the O3 instrument are now on top of the fast NOx/O3 systems. That’s the best option I could come up with.
We successfully crossed the lake with the PTR-TOF-MS. The instrument is now in the flux hut and Catie is working on it.
We pulled a sample line through the Arctic pipe for the PTR-TOF-MS. ST1 and ST2 lines are out of the pipe.
Question for Detlev: On the picture below, the filter on the left is ours (fast O3/NOx systems), the one on the right is for the PTR-TOF-MS. Do you think they are too close to each other or that their inlet might interfere with ours? I just want to make sure that this setup is okay.
Friday, May 17th
Make room in the hut for Lu/Catie’s instrument
Catastrophe! While slightly moving the NPL tank, a short-circuit happened. I saw sparks and the GC/MS stopped. Everything that was connected to CKT 10 stopped. Strange thing, the fast NOx instrument stopped as well (at least the UPS + fan of H20 pump + laptop). NO flow on fast O3 instrument dropped to 0. I think the line between the NPL tank and the GC/MS touched CKT 10 and that’s how everything happened (see pics below). Jacques and I disconnected everything (computer, GC/MS, UPS) from CKT 10 and connected to CKT 17 instead. GC/MS restarted, fast NOx as well. We will check tomorrow that everything is indeed okay.
The NO flow dropping to 0 on the fast O3 has actually nothing to do with the short-circuit. The needle valve was not sufficiently open. Problem fixed. Keep an eye on this NO flow to make sure it doesn’t drop to 0 again.
Pics of the NPL tank line, CKT 10 and floor below CKT 10.
